Steps to Clean Up Your Garden for Spring

When Spring arrives do you know what to do to give your plants, shrubs, trees
and evergreens the best start possible? How do you maximize the growth
potential of your flower garden? What should you do to produce the most blooms
and the healthiest plants for the coming summer?

In this article I discuss some of the things you can do in Spring to get your
garden and landscape looking its best. I will look at some plants that need
trimming and other steps necessary at this time of year.

One of the first steps you should take is to walk around your garden and do a
visual inspection of the plants you have. How did the plant survive the winter?
Was it eaten by deer or other wild animals? Do you need to replace a plant?
Just because a plant has died off all the way to the ground doesn't mean that
the plant is dead and needs to be replaced. The fallopia plant dies back to the
ground every winter. This is a normal occurrence and it will come back with new
shoots.

As you are wandering around your garden pick up any trash and paper that has
blown into the yard. Branches that have fallen during the winter storms should
be removed, unless you are going for that natural look to your garden. This is
a good time to start trimming back plants to prepare them for summer.

Some plants should be completely trimmed back, others you should cut off
branches that are shooting in the wrong direction and need some trimming for
aesthetic purposes. There is a list at the bottom of this article to help
determine which plants need special care.

Early in the spring is a good time to find unwanted weeds from last year that
need to be removed. Just pull them up, roots and all. If you are unsure if the
plant you are looking at is a weed or not then wait a month or two until you
can be certain it is something you should pull.

Finally, you should fluff up last year's mulch and add additional mulch as
needed to your garden. An important point to remember is that you should have 2
to 4 inches of mulch on your garden to hold in moisture and heat. To fluff up
the mulch, just take a rake and rake it up and then rake it back into the spot
it came from. Try to leave space between the mulch, meaning, don't pack it
down. Make it look full, like fluffing a pillow.

Before you run off to the landscape store to buy new plants, wait for the soil
to warm up. Just because daytime highs reach above 60 degrees for a few days,
doesn't mean the soil has warmed to the proper temperature. It still cools at
night and any soil heat gains can be lost at night. Sometimes the south facing
side of your house is warm enough to plant in, but the north side shaded by the
house hasn't warmed enough to place plants in the ground.

If you find a plant you want, go ahead and buy it, but leave it in its pot and
protect it from frost and cold until the soil has heated sufficiently to plant
it in the ground. My wife will purchase a plant. Place it in the sun during the
day and then bring it into the garage overnight. Usually, by June 5th in
Northern Illinois, it is warm enough to place plants in the ground with little
concern for freezing and root damage.

Trim in fall or early spring. Trim to the ground old growth. After new growth
begins cut back to 8 inches for more flowering.

These are the steps for spring clean up in the garden. Trim the plants that
need trimming, fluff up the mulch, pick up trash and prepare yourself to enjoy
another great spring, summer and fall season of gardening.